¹H NMR Metabolic Profiling and Meat Quality in Three Beef Cattle Breeds from Northeastern Thailand

Abstract

The increasing need for effective analytical tools to evaluate beef quality has prompted the development of new procedures to improve the animal sector’s performance. In this study, three beef breeds—Thai native (TN), crossbred Brahman × Thai native (BT), and crossbred Charolais × Brahman (CB)—were compared in terms of their physicochemical and metabolic profiles. The findings demonstrated that TN beef was lighter and tougher than other beef. Beef odor was stronger in BT. In addition, CB beef was the most tender and had the highest intramuscular fat content. Twenty-one different metabolites were found overall through NMR and chemometric approaches. The primary factors contributing to the difference in OPLS-DA loading plots were acetylcholine, valine, adenine, leucine, phosphocreatine, β-hydroxypyruvate, ethanol, adenosine diphosphate, creatine, acetylcholine, and lactate. The multivariate analysis indicated that these metabolites in beef cattle breeds could be distinguished using NMR spectroscopy. The results of this study provide valuable information on the quality and meat metabolites of different breeds. This could help in the development of a more accurate assessment of the quality of beef in future research.